Don’t Make These Cookout Mistakes On July 4th

The cookout approacheth. You can probably hear it. The sound of tongs clanging against the grill. The gentle laughter rippling through the breeze. The static fizz of drinks being poured. The clink of glasses coming together. July 4 is now two days away, and chances are you’re either fully stocked up on everything you need or scrambling to take advantage of those last-minute deals and fill your cooler with beers. 

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Wherever you are in your prep, though, come Saturday, it can all fall apart – if you’re making a couple of classic mistakes. Avoid the following, and you’ll be golden.

Firing Up The Grill Too Late

This is a cookout mistake that also applies to pretty much any situation you’re hosting. While you’re welcoming guests, making sure everyone has a drink and a snack in their hand, and catching up with people, it can be easy to forget that your grill needs time to heat up. Sometimes, that time is…lengthy. Some grills can take 45 minutes to get up to full heat – and people’s appetites can very quickly spike, especially when they have a beer in their hand. 

So, set an approximate time that you’d like to start serving your burgers and chops, and then work back. Give yourself a good half an hour before you start cooking anything to get your grill up to temperature. Otherwise, you’ll be getting through a lot of chips. 

Getting Your Salads Out Too Early

July 4 could be the hottest ever for millions of Americans, according to CBS. Aside from the general state of worry this might prompt about changing climates, it’s also a worry for your food safety. Leaving dishes out in the heat for too long can quickly cause them to become unsanitary, and salads, which languish on tables for hours at a time, can be more unsafe than most other foods. Leave them in your fridge until about 10 minutes before you’re ready to serve them – and then, once everyone’s done, put them back in the refrigerator as soon as you can. 

Poking Your Meat

Yes, yes: It’s a time-honored tradition to stand around a grill, prodding your meat with a fork to check its doneness. It’s part of the fun. Every time you do this, though, you risk it losing its moisture – particularly if you’re poking it with something sharp. Even minor punctures on the surface of meat act as an escape valve for all the juices, and you’ll be left with something leathery and tough.

So, just leave that meat where it is. Give it time to cook without fiddling with it. The same goes for flipping it endlessly: You won’t give it enough time to sear. 

Forgetting To Account For Extra Guests

You know how it is. Your cousin’s husband can suddenly come again, and then the neighbor comes around with their new partner – and his kids. Suddenly, you’ve got five extra people at the table…and hey, why don’t we invite a couple of other people? The day’s young!

Before you know it, you’re out of food. Happens to the best of us. Go big. Over-order. Think in terms of abundance. You can always freeze what you don’t use.